Iridescence
by xcontagiousx
Summary: When Sora is forced to leave his island home to cold, uninhabited Alaska, his expectations are below zero. He doesn't expect the fair-weathered friends or the whim of a photographer. Falling head over heels in love wasn't in the mix either. RikuSora YAOI


_Story: When Sora is forced to leave his tropical, island getaway to freezing, uninhabited Sitca, Alaska, his expectations are below zero. But he doesn't expect to befriend captivating student photographer, Riku, or stubborn spunk, Roxas, who owns half the town, or Axel, Cloud, Namine, and Leon for that matter. Falling head over heels in love wasn't in the mix either. Riku/Sora Roxas/Axel Cloud/Leon. Yaoi!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters._

_Warning: Rated M for some language and Yaoi in later chapters._

_Pairings: SoraRiku, RoxasAxel, CloudLeon_

_A/N: This chapter is not finished, but I figured, what the heck, might as well upload it. This is maybe...an eighth of the length that the chapter will be. It is going to take me a long time to write this. I figure this because this small portion took me about 6 hours. I want perfection in this story, down to every last word and punctuation mark, so yeah._

_This is it. Enjoy!_

A faint breeze trickled across disarrayed chocolate bangs, tickling brown, sun-kissed skin, warm and lovingly. Wide, ocean blue, angelic orbs fixated with immense fascination at the numerous blending colors of the alluring sunset.

The sunset which the boy, whom the captivating eyes and unkempt hair belonged to, was going to miss terribly. He was perched only a few feet off of the glistening sand, atop a bulky, crooked branch that extended horizontally across the ground.

A collective sigh escaped his lips as he leaned his head back, closing his eyes tightly, imprinting the image of this tropical paradise in his mind forever. The gentle sounds of waves breaking the shore reached his sensitive ears, the dull, unflucuating caws of pearly white gulls floating on the updrafts of the comforting currents.

He refused to open his eyes for an extensive period of time, reminiscing the pleasant memories that flooded his mind.

This was his home, all he had ever fathomed. He had spent all sixteen years of his idle life on the spacious, exotic island.

Destiny Islands. Home was its proper name.

The home he had believed was physically incapable of being left behind. He regarded the island as a definition of his very being.

He exhaled softly, finally revealing his exuberant eyes, long, dark eyelashes fluttering.

The landscape before him had changed drastically, cobalt and violet clouds swirling in magnificent shapes, tiny, crystalline stars dotting across the sky like diamonds. Pristine beauty.

The soft tread of bare feet shifting in the sand caught his attention, and he twisted his head around sharply to the right.

His lips parted in a shy smile as a familiar, pretty girl approached him with apprehension. "Hey, Kairi."

"Hey, Sora," she answered quietly, hoisting her small weight easily onto the large branch to sit close to the contemplative boy.

She tucked several strands of chin-length, crimson hair hastily behind her ear, chewing delicately on her bottom lip.

Conversation was unnecessary between the two best friends. A relative term that could not compare to the immeasurable strength of their friendship.

Best friends since birth.

Smooth fingers interlocked into his own, thumb gently tracing his palm.

"Are you nervous?" She asked thoughtfully, assuringly squeezing his arm at the looming prospect of leaving his treasured home for the first time in his redundant life.

He didn't acknowledge her question at first, squinting as he dismembered the moon hovering above the pitch-black night and the one rippling across the black, shadowy ocean.

He inhaled deeply before answering in a saddened, coarse voice. "This is my home, Kairi."

She subconsciously tightened her grip around his arm.

"I've never been off the island."

The desperation in his wavering voice heightened.

Kairi sighed inaudibly, resting her head sideways into his thin shoulder blade, breathing in his recognizable scent. Salt water and sweet cocoa butter.

"I'm going to miss you," she whispered, lips slightly muffled by his plain white t-shirt. He shuddered involuntarily.

Kairi sensed his immediate discomfort as she brought about his current troubles. Cleverly, she decided to momentarily distract him.

"Remember basking in the sun all summer long?"

His lips curved upwards into a charming smile. "Diving off the splintering dock," he mumbled, humoring her.

"Baring the raft against the swells to reach our secret caves on the opposite side of the island."

"Falling asleep on the shore under the dazzling stars."

They simultaneously sighed, allowing the lapping waves to settle the silence between them. Kairi glided her fingers across his soft skin, caressing his arm.

"Think of it as the beginning of our aspirations to travel the world," she suggested kindly. She felt him tremble beneath her fingers.

"That was supposed to be you and me, together," he insisted defiantly, his knuckles clenching in a sudden bout of anger.

Kairi pulled away, slightly frightened as his irritation simmered as quickly as it had flared. She squeezed his hand tightly. "I guess I'll have to catch up with you then."

She felt him shudder involuntarily, but his marveling gaze casting across the sand never faltered.

"I'm really going to miss you, Sora," Kairi murmured grieviously into his shoulder, trying vainly to suppress the tears that formed tiny droplets into the corners of her bright blue eyes.

She heard him sniff and shift restlessly, worming his arm out of her grip and relocating it around her shivering shoulders. She readjusted her head under his chin, sighing contently.

"You have to take pictures, write me a postcard once a week, tell me everything, okay? Or else?"

"Or else what?" His childlike vocals cracked. Kairi felt tiny pearls dampen her crimson hair. She looked up, gasping softly at the unexpected well of shimmering tears cascading down his bronze cheeks.

"Or else I'm going to have to drag myself 4000 ruthless miles up there just to knock some sense into your thick head!" She threatened half-heartedly, squeezing his arm again.

He hiccupped as he managed a sincere smile, hand hesitantly wiping the unwelcome tears from his eyes.

"Look what this is doing to me," he chortled, hiccupping again. "This isn't me."

Their waterlogged eyes met for just a second before suddenly, they both erupted into violent tremors of laughter. Their breathing hitched, their lungs gasping ineffectively for fresh air, clutching their ribs.

Somehow, they both found themselves rolling in the gentle crests of the sand, laughing, ignoring the microscopic grains that embedded gingerly between their toes and stuck into the layers of their hair.

They were laughing. For the absurdity of his unescapable situation. For the abrupt end of sixteen years together, well-spent in naivity. And for the soothing reminder of what would always be engrained in their pasts.

He had heard somewhere before, a saying that began with, "Memories they came and went, in light of all the time we spent..."

But he was profusely determined to prove the author of that quote wrong. Kairi was not going to fade into a distant memory, even if she was a grueling 4000 miles away.

4000 miles.

He massaged his stomach tenderly, his rigid abs cramping from their impulsive mirth. As his ragged breathing slowly calmed, his candid smile curved again into an alien frown.

A damp hand rested tiredly onto his own, cool, glossed nails combing his fingers. His eyelids fell heavily as the burden of his present bearings uncoiled from their retreat.

It was undoubtedly going to happen.

At 7 o'clock sharp in the misty morning. He would have to render his fleeting desperation and construct a false, strong front among his friends and neighbors.

"Kairi?"

"Yeah, Sora?"

A bout of contemplative silence overwhelmed the vacant space that divided the two friends. He inhaled deeply, reimbursing his unwavering thoughts and focusing on what instance was right now. What mattered right then and there, with an unquestionable doubt.

"Will you stay here with me?" He murmured, chewing delicately on his bottom lip as he awaited her versed answer. "Just this one last night?" He reinstated, unashamed that her existence had become so significant in his life.

He would be irrecoverably cast aside without Kairi. The meaningfulness and sufficiency of his life would be obscured.

What was he possibly going to do 4000 miles away, succumbed to the frigid tundra, companionless and dilvulged deep into the last remnants of his home?

Hell, he didn't even own a jacket.

There was no immediate reason for owning any type of long-sleeved fabric in the sunny islands, chiefly due to the fact that the annual weather consisted of summer heat and sticky papou fruit. All year long, despite the occassional tropical storms that wreaked havoc against rain-battered, thatched roofs.

"Of course I will," Kairi answered, a sad hint of remorse masked in her facade.

That was all he needed.

For now.

The complex obstacles that would distance him from his true self were meaningless against the unspoken promises that harbored between the best friends.

And that was all he needed to achieve a decent night of fitfull sleeping, laying serenly next to his best friend, whom he vowed never to dispatch from his mind, and relaxing as the gentle waves caressed the shore.

It would be a long time before he would ever hear that tranquil serenade again.

XXX

He pursed his lips as he dejectedly fixed his eyes on the wispy, shapeless forms that flecked the clear sky. He shifted idly in the uncomfortable fabricated seat. He'd imagined bitterly that if Seiya could afford such an arbitrary move 4000 miles across the globe, she should have indefinitely been able to secure more spacious seats in first class.

He sighed inaudibly, allowing his forehead to rest delicately against the cool window pane. It was regrettably unfair for him to force all of the blame on his mother; she only meant well. But he couldn't help but bleakly direct his anger and frustration towards her. The move had been so impulsive and doubtless.

But there was no turning back now, mostly due to the inevitable fact that the bulky, stark white plane was thousands of feet above the invisible ground and he had no immediate access to a parachute. At least, that was his thought-provoked reasoning.

He hardly moved an inch as he felt Seiya conspicuously brush by his shoulder in an attempt to find some rest herself. He solely focused on the indistinguishable shapes that the cotton-like clouds were producing, his dark eyelashes fluttering as the uniform scene replayed before his bored gaze, urging his heavy eyelids to fall.

Maybe, just maybe, if he shuttered his eyes closed, the scene before him would wane, and he could find himself sprawled out across the cool sand, cold fingers mingled into Kairi's just as the inviting sun casted warm beams across their serene faces.

Then he could stretch his taut muscles and watch the languished imprints that his and Kairi's feet made in the dawn sand as they ambled casually back to his mindful abode. Their routine was tenacious, and he prayed late nights before the destined moving day that he would wake up in the morning without his fate being sealed without his permission.

Instead, when he opened his eyes again, the sky was stark white, thin strands of celestine silver etched in the color. He blinked furiously, attempting to remove the blur from the corners of his eyelids, and he realized with a plummet in the back of his throat, that this wasn't just the sky anymore.

Multitudes of enormous, snowy capped mountains lined the window, ominous cliffs protruding and making the mountains jagged and dangerous looking. But they were also captivating in their perilous, foreboding beauty.

He audibly gasped, attracting the attention of Seiya, who, now awake, leaned over, offering a genuine smile. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

He regained his senses long enough to purse his lips again and sit back against the uncomfortable seat and shrug his shoulders emotionlessly.

Seiya sighed, her dark brown eyes downcast. She drew a hesitant hand over and soothingly ruffled his chocolate brown spikes, resting her palm at the base of his neck. "Give it a chance," she murmured, fingers tracing delicate circles on his tan skin.

Guilt ebbed its way into Sora's conscience, and he deliberately willed his muscles to relax for the sake of his apprehensive mother. It was one of the qualities he possessed, and to him, it was bitter sweet. He wanted to be angry, desperately wished that he could keep a resonating grudge against her for forcing this move, but it was against his character.

So instead, he nodded thoughtfully. "I'll try," he promised. And he knew that that was the best he coud possibly do for the time being.

It was something else that Sora dedicated himself to: keeping a promise. He blatantly refused to make a promise that he was even remotely uncertain of keeping.

It wasn't like he had much of a choice in this promise anyway. He had to try, or he would be deemed to misery for the duration of his youth until he could move out.

Thus, as the plane began its steep descent, the promise that Sora had made to his mother remained engrained in his mind. And as he clutched his backpack and suitcase that held his clothes, necessities, and a few personal artifacts that he could not bear to part with, and as he followed his mother with a childish auroa about him, as if she were leading him to school for the first day, he remembered his promise.

Remembered that he had to at least try.

XXX

Sora had never been good at making friends. If it weren't for his instant popularity through Kairi, Sora was sure that his shy demeanor would have placed him in the front seat of each classroom, scribbling notes in his binder by himself. On the flip side of the spectrum, he was irrisitibly and effortlessly likeable. There was some underhand charm about the delicate way his bright cerulean eyes widened and the way his trusting, white smile literally illuminated an entire room.

He was just too damn shy for his own good.

But that didn't stop the entire island from befriending him with vigor.

Unfortunately, he didn't have Kairi to guide him through the foreign halls of this new high school he was going to be attending. He was going to have to either drastically change his mannerism, or he was going to face the reality of what should have happened to him years ago.

Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about that just yet. At the moment, he was deeply immersed into the intricate architecture of the home that he was going to be calling his own.

It was a gray brick house that seemed to engulf the acre of land that they now owned. There was a white porch that curved around the base; the door was a dark, mahogany brown that stood out against the blue-gray exterior. As much as he would hate to admit it, Sora rather liked the house. True, it was completely opposite of the beach-front house, its colors dark and the stone frame nearly seeming more like a prison than a house. But it was nice.

In all compass directions, moutains jutted out into the pearly sheen sky; snow had interwoven against the caps. And the air, the crispness and coolness had shocked him. Maybe it was because he held such animosity against the move, he was expecting everything that came with it to be just as dreadful.

But the air. It was cool, and fresh, and even he could smell the salt in the air from the coastline that was only a mile or so away. It was more serene than he could have ever imagined, and yet, he still scorned it.

As his mother drove from the small airport in a rental Honda, he reaccounted the untamed, crystalline waters, the unexpected presence of seagulls floating on the air currents above, and even the white boats sailing, no gliding, through the parting waves. Everything was so pristine and unwelcome.

So now he sat dejectedly on the corner of his bare mattress, staring mindlessly at the plastered, nude walls of his room, every once in a while pausing to glance outside where he could barely make out the distant division of the mountains and the ocean.

It was too quiet here.

The absence of friendly, chirping birds and the crystal clear waves crashing down in torrents against the shoreline and the warm sun beams dancing across his baked skin, was the absence of everything he once knew.

This place was a barren, unwelcome abode and he was only remotely aware that there was a strange lump in his throat and it took him near a full minute to distinguish exactly _why _there were fat tears pouring down his cheeks and why his bottom lip was suddenly quivering and his body was trembling with fear and not excitement.

It had been too much to ask, too much too soon.

Blind fear flooded his mind and he grabbed a white, blue, and brown hemp bracelet that he had uncovered in his backpack. Kairi had made it for him. And he bolted. Down the cream colored stairs, out the heavy, mahogany bed, and through mint green grass, tears springing from his eyes, insensible to where his frantic feet were leading him.

His legs were careening down pavement, the soles of his shoes pounding into the ground as he ran. His breath came out in uneven pants, but he ignored the sharp stitch in his side. It was a minimal pain compared to how badly his heart was hurting right now.

Goosebumps prickled across his bare skin and although he was running, his blood was cold and he was shivering because he didn't have a jacket.

When he finally stopped, it wasn't because his sides were heaving and he was out of breath, or because he had to stop before he was unable to locate where he was. He just simply decided it was time to stop, so he did at a wooden bench overlooking a beach full of shoals, pulling his knees to his chest and fiercly rubbing his arms together causing friction to keep him warm.

He sighed in defeat. Running away from his problems never did any good. He tried to remind himself that neither was moving away.

XXX

The stranger hissed in discontentment as he snapped the lid to his camera lens and dropped the black electronic device around his neck, dangling uselessly. He clicked his tongue with impatience as he waited for the green walkman to appear, signaling his turn to walk across the intersection.

His phone vibrated restlessly in his pocket and he ignored the subtle vibrations. It was probably Sephiroth, calling to bitterly nag at him because he hadn't any magazine spreads in a long while. He brushed silver-tressed bangs out of his eyes as he gazed inattentively at the wispy mountains.

Maybe he was losing his touch. It was nearly impossible to find exceptional inspiration anymore, especially here. Sure, he had the gigantic, onimous mountains that were often illuminated by the extraordinary northern lights. Those had been favorites. But he didn't particularly care for landscapes, not when he had human models.

He was notoriously known for photographing sensitive and borderline-raunchy shoots, and sleeping with his models. Worse than his capabilities, was his bad reputation. He had a resentful, ungrateful attitude, a high-and-dry perception of anyone whom he believed was in the way of his career, but he had the fame and fortune that allowed him this luxury.

His last spread had been of a young, hotheaded blonde model who captivated him from the start. The small boy was pale with disarrayed blonde spikes that had been mussed up with copious amounts of hair gel. He had a lean, thin body with perfectly sculpted planes across his chest and narrow, intense blue eyes.

It had been the peak of his young career, and the downfall of him. He had made a few, dire mistakes that leaked into the media. One, he had voluntarily gotten into a more serious relationship with the startling boy and he did more than his part by making their complicated relationship public. There was cheating, physical fighting, and a tremendous break-up that unfortunately tainted his reputation.

What was worse, he couldn't quite capture the same intensity and "bad-ass" persona that that boy had brought to his palette. It was all a mistake right from the beginning, with both he and his ex-boyfriend both being fiery, sharp-tongued, well, there was no other way to put it, bastards, they were bound to have a rough falling out.

His "client" had it far better, with his damn black and red etnies and stupid cargo pants. Of course, he was merely a student too, coincidently attending the same highschool as he. But he had moved on evasively, determined to keep his newest relationship under wraps.

He didn't blame him for it honestly.

His phone vibrated again, which he chose to continue ignoring. He was padding softly into dry grass, stumbling across a miniscule park that overlooked the distant ocean, though he still wasn't extensively paying attention.

He chewed on his bottom lip as he reaccounted the past few miserable months. It was stressful, his life. He was one of the oldest in his class, turning nineteen in early March, and he already had a career in hand. Maybe it was his father's influence that paved his way, but Riku had become a living child star while at the same time remaining the epitome of a rebellious, horny teenager.

People expected things from him, expected him to bring the next model into the spotlight. If a model wanted to become popular easily, all he or she had to do was become acquainted with Riku and hopelessly pray that they could catch his narrow-blinded eye.

Since then, the only significance that the entire scandal held for him, was that he was bound by what he had created, and not what he was producing. He had captured too many stills of the same people and same locations. He needed something new, something individualistic that would ultimately bring him out of this placid reverie.

He noticed the bluish tinge to the sky and he wondered vaguely if it was going to rain. It sure felt like it as he shuddered, bringing his jacket closer to his body. He wasn't really cold, it was mostly out of habit that he acted somewhat human considering the media believed he was void of all emotions.

It could have been a devastatingly pretty scene. But he didn't find much of anything attractive anymore.

He stalked moodily across the abandoned park...or what he initially thought was empty.

A lone mass of spiky locks of chocolate brown hair, defying gravity was curled up pathetically on a splintering bench, eyes downcast. He wasn't wearing a jacket, but he figured at least the kid was smart enough to wear jeans out here. You didn't wander Alaska in mid-August with a pair of shorts. The kid, whoever he was, looked downright puny.

He rolled his eyes, unconsciously fingering the cap of his camera lens. He was a good thirty yards away, but he could distinguish every sad feature of this unrecongizable lump. His body language was miserable, evident from the drooping ends of his touseled hair to his limp arm that curled against the legs of the bench.

He was almost unaware of unscrewing the cap and bringing the ebony camera to his studied eye, fingering the zooming lens on the boy.

It was almost picture perfect. Almost. The sad, unnerving stance of the boy, the incliment weather. _Click. Click. _

Suddenly, two sputtering eyes, wide with bewilderment, angelic and as bright blue as the soft waters of Costa Rica, fixated with unease up into the sky. _Click._

An unfamiliar smirk pulled at his thin lips as he lowered the camera. Those eyes, breath-taking like...well, he didn't want to reminesce those bitter memories. He threw on a facade, rocking his shoulders back and his bored walk becoming more of a saunter and he brushed invading bangs out of his eyes again and softly treaded towards the bench towards his new, unaware project.

_I believe that this is where I am ending the first chapter, so what do you think? I was finally able to really collect my thoughts and put everything onto paper. Any thoughts, comments, concerns, & errors are greatly appreciated. This will be the only post for a long while, unfortunately, but I wil be working hard bit by bit. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy._


End file.
